Keeping the Role Playing aspect

Endless Community Ideas
#1

So far the voxel games have just not been able to hold up to the typical role playing aspect. From minecraft to boundless, the Role, is just missing. If skyrim can keep a deep system and define a “role”, why are the games not defining players? For a community to exist…the players NEED to have a place.

So hear me out here. Having a role can be considered like having a job. Its a place to be someone else or have a spot within a club to contribute to a larger community. Why are games now just catering to a one-sized fits all where you can essentially do things without assistance? We need to bring the Roleplaying aspect back.

Lets say in a game we have a blank canvas. This canvas needs a background, but you are missing the paint. If players can get together and figure out how to create the paint, gather materials, research the material properties, and over time…paint a story. This allows for community projects and collaboration. But more importantly, it allows for players to feel needed to assist into a greater cause.

One example I can pull from is my World of Warcraft The Burning Crusade days. I played a Restoration druid. My role was to keep people alive, plain and simple, but this was not an easy task. I couldn’t allow ANYONE to die or we would have to wait for the player to slowly return to their corpse or I can revive them, once every 30 minutes, so being able to manage death…was on me. Unlike the palladin, shaman, or Priest…I wasn’t the best class to do fast dungeons. What I was good at…was keeping idiots up!

Since I was a healer, killing in the name of…,well just wasn’t good. I relied on others. When I would login, I would get 5-10 messages from players about doing Dungeons. They reached out, they asked me, they wanted me, and boy did they need my services. This felt great in a time where I personally felt unwanted. To be fair, I was one of the best at the time at my game. This actually helped me get through some dark times in my life.

So why the long write up on Role Playing. In this day n age. Role playing seems to be misunderstood and evolved into…I can tank, I can DPS, I can heal, I can do it all. Just like Life…a CEO cannot do it all. They need team members to perform roles by subject matter experts in order to function. What if we were to return to those days? Players being able to define a function that fits their personality can keep them engaged but more importantly…the player will just be needed in the community.

Here is my idea for role playing here.

PvE Roles:
Tanking, DPS, Healing (Hybrid roles are OK, but there should be some penelties for this but tradeoffs as well)
Magic research (Librarian/historian) To help improve spells, abilities for all players. Not a combat role but still essential for the overall well-being of the game.
Tech research (Same as Magic research)
Scientist Role (think geologist/mineralogist)
Engineer (Think vehicle based combat and such) tinkerer, all around PvE to PvP badass.

PvP roles:
Strategist, being able to use hotkeys to guide a group in battle.
Leader: Players within a radius/range get defense/offensive bonuses
Machinist: Players have bonuses operating heavy machinery
Scouts: Players who can go ahead and get updates on enemy positions faster.

So each role would have a defined function within the game. You cannot be anything else nor can you cross class with. If you do jump into another class…you would have some defects or won’t be as good but benefit from early talents and so on.

What are your thoughts on having exclusive roles? While this works in any workplace, does this idea have a place in a game? For me: Its a big yes as my role within the game fits a greater good. To building, gathering, farming, PvE, or even PvP. Being able to specialize and stand out makes the game even more worthwhile.

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#2

You lose the potential solo player who wants to play the game.
I like the idea of having a role but except for going for one role to exceed in, there must be a way to balance other roles too.
example:
Say you are a healer and you want to be the best if you don’t pick up other opposite skills you can reach 100%, top healer.
Someone else may choose to reach only 80% of the healers capacity because they want to be able to have fighting skills too.

Also, there should be complementary roles too.

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#3

Are you saying that you would prefer it to where people couldn’t level in multiple skills and switch out? IE Like FF14 with their loadouts.

Or are you talking more like a role you designate for yourself like Miner, Builder, Takn(Ranged/Meley), DPS(Ranged, Mele), Support(Ranged, Healer), Crafter, Forger etc?

Fact is this is one of the more complex subjects that I am sure we will rehash over and over and over again to get it perfect.

But our idea is you can level in whatever you want to make your character as unique as possible. Think old school Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale you could choose soo many options and multiclass to create a character to where if you were to duel with another character of the same “class setup” as you that the odds that your skills, spells and abilities might share some basic stuff but overall unlikely that yours and theirs will be exactly the same.

We are wanting to bring the old school complicated RPG stuff back into the game where you have enough selection of things to customize your character from class, abilities, stats and more that you can have the best chance of a completely unique setup as possible.

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#4

For me, I would just create another character or skill page to do other “roles”. Depending on the system allowed. Having Survival DPS/Tanking skills is pretty standard for healing roles (Although the skills are not as efficient as healing) Most solo players will do DPS from what I’ve seen in my time in MMO’s because its the most efficient method for farming.

What I am trying to get to is for end-game/specialization purposes. Being able to perform a function that has better payoff as a focused role. If you dabble in other things…its not as good. POE actually does this very well BUT is expensive to correct mistakes and can make or break a custom build.

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#5

Think of my post as "Do I want a doctor to fix me up? Or a mechanic/salesman? :slight_smile: Answer would be obvious lol

More like a self defined role (Miner/Builder/Tank/Melee/DPS/healer/gatherer/crafter/forger)I wouldn’t say couldn’t level other things BUT reward the one’s who specialize into a particular role. Saying if they want to specialize in:

  • Gathering: World Mob Threat reduced by xx%
  • Tanking: Armor/defensive abilities increased by xx%
  • Healing: Healing abilities increased by xx%
  • DPS: Damage abilities increased by xx%
  • Crafter: Higher quality craftable/faster crafting times
  • Miner: Obtains Higher amount of ore or higher chance for rare ore materials
  • Forger: Item stats could be xx% higher

I’ve never played Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights, or Icewind dale, BUT I did play Reigns of Darkness and Path of Exile. Class balance was a major issue in that game(ROD). But I did like the theory crafting/open class system idea…

BUT you can still do a hybrid system, which there is nothing wrong with an open/classless system. I just believe the pure class should have its benefits since One particular area is the primary focus. This way, its weak in many areas, but strong in one. Just makes for grouping up a necessity.

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#6

Now keep in mind, my idea is mostly for Group/community based where players can specialize for stronger abilities/exclusive recipes/etc. So you can still solo play but contribute to guild/group play.

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